HEATHER - BURNING 411 



(5) In a good burning year keepers often wish to knock off "work" 

 under the plea that enough burning has been done for a single season. 

 It is very doubtful if too much burning can ever be done in any 

 season pi-ovided the areas of the fires are reduced in size as the 

 patching and strijyping of the moor progresses. By large fires a 

 moor can be easily burned out, but no old patch is so small that a 

 smaller patch cannot be taken out of it and the moor be thereby 

 improved. 

 Certain moors or portions of moors have a tendency to go back to grass, 

 and therefore require special treatment. The most common reasons for 

 this reversion from heather to grass is lack of attention during the of green 



ground. 



period from 1850 to 1900, overstocking by sheep (especially of the 

 black-faced variety), and big fires after the heather has got old. In practice 

 it is found that these causes often work in combination. 



The attention of gamekeepers should be directed to the burning of " white 

 grass " as well as heather. By doing so they provide directly for the sheep 

 and indirectly also for the Grouse ; for, so long as they are plentifully supplied 

 with grass, sheep will not draw heavily on the heather. "White grass" can be 

 burned in larger stretches and consequently more rapidly than heather, and 

 advantage should always be taken of any specially dry season to burn the low, 

 damp hollows where this grass chiefly abounds ; in four seasons out of five 

 such places are too damp to burn. 



To bring green ground back to heather is always a slow and often a costly 

 business. 



Control of the sheep stock to prevent an over-cropping of the heather 

 seedlings, fencing of the newly-burned patches, sowing of heather seed in 

 specially prepared ground are all methods that may be found useful. 



The methods of procedure and the respective values of " green " ground for 

 sheep and Grouse are discussed at some length on p. 499. 



The laisser faire argument— that the change from heather to grass or bracken 

 depends on the seasons, and that nothing should be done — is one that the 

 Committee view with suspicion. Putting off burning where old heather exists 

 only means putting off the evil day, and it is probably correct to say that for 

 every year that the old heather is left unburned after maturity, at least one 

 year is added to the time required for the young heather to replace the grass. 

 There can, unfortunately, be no doubt that bracken is spreading considerably 



